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Minister of Higher Education and Training, Naledi Pandor, has announced the appointment of Dr Randall Carolissen as the Administrator for the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS).

Carolissen is appointed to NSFAS as Administrator for a period of one year to take over the governance, management and administration of the entity.

The appointment will be effective from the date of the publication of a notice in the Government Gazette, which will be done early next week.

The National Education, Health and Allied Workers' Union (Nehawu) last week gave NSFAS CEO Steven Zwane an ultimatum to step down by Thursday or face protests by members who work at the scheme.

The union accused Zwane of nepotism as well as failing to uplift students, together with former NSFAS chairperson Sizwe Nxasana.

Nxasana stepped down last week, citing "extreme strain" on the payments system following the introduction of free higher education for worthy students in January 2018.

NSFAS came under fire recently after Minister of Higher Education Naledi Pandor instructed the institution to halt funding for 2019 students because a backlog in disbursing aid for 2017 and 2018 had not been cleared. NSFAS has an annual budget of R30bn.

Carolissen is currently the Group Executive: Revenue Planning, Analysis and Reporting at the South African Revenue Services (SARS). He is also the Chair of the Council of the University of the Witwatersrand.

He holds a Master’s degree in Solid State Physics and a PhD Solid State Physics from the University of the Western Cape.

He also obtained an Honours degree in Business Administration and an MBA University of Stellenbosch.

Carolissen has previously served as an academic - as a researcher at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) as a senior lecturer in Physics at the University of the Western Cape, and as a Visiting Fellow at the universities of Pennsylvania and Missouri in the US and the University of Gent in Belgium.

"I wish to thank him for agreeing to take on this critical and important task. I also thank the South African Revenue Services, and the Minister of Finance for agreeing to release Dr Carollissen," Pandor said.